Vortex wind turbines (also referred to as cyclone or tornado turbines) use side inlets to generate a vortical flow structure downstream of the turbine blades. The low pressure core of the vortical flow structure draws ambient air from below the vortex to assist in driving the turbine blades.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,131 (Yen) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,639 (Yeh) both disclose wind power plants having vertical plates disposed about the periphery of a tower to provide side inlets for creation of a vortical flow structure. These plates give rise to a disturbance in the airflow, thus limiting the benefits of the vortical flow structure. This type of structure is also quite complicated in construction.
PCT application No. WO 2004/097216 (Stiig, Golriz) discloses a wind power plant having a vertical tower having non-circular elliptical cross-section and a single side inlet for generation of a vortical flow structure. The entire tower is rotatable so that the large axis of the ellipse is kept parallel to the wind direction. Rotation of the tower is accomplished by a motor and is quite cumbersome. Expenditure of energy to rotate the tower also decreases the overall efficiency of the plant.
While some wind power technologies have been translated to hydraulic power technologies (and vice versa), the use of a different working fluid can precipitate a number of design changes. For instance, the density of water is obviously much higher than the density of air. Also, maintenance issues arise due to the relative inaccessibility of hydraulic power generators. As such, the above described plants involving a motorized rotation of the generator would be impractical.